Parker's family hires attorney

Thursday

Aug 14, 2014 at 6:59 PMAug 14, 2014 at 7:02 PM

VICTORVILLE — The wife of a Daily Press employee who died in sheriff’s custody Tuesday after being stunned with a Taser multiple times said Thursday that the family has hired an attorney.Bianca Parker, the wife of Dante Parker, 36, of Victorville, said the family has hired the same Orange County attorney used by the family of Parker’s cousin, Donte Jordan, who was shot and killed by Long Beach Police in November. The coroner’s report showed police officers shot Jordan in the back. The Parker family was mourning the loss of Dante on Thursday, which was his 37th birthday. Family members gathered in Parker’s home in the 12400 block of Freeport Drive, making funeral arrangements and wondering why they still had not been allowed to see his body.Bianca Parker told reporters she panicked when Dante had not returned home around 11 p.m. Tuesday. She said she called Victor Valley Global Medical Center and was told Dante was at the facility. Bianca said she and Dante’s father, Darrell Parker, arrived at the hospital around midnight. She said they waited for at least two hours before three detectives approached them and began questioning them about Dante’s medical history.“They were asking us, ‘Did he have any heart problems? Did he do any drugs? Did he have a history of drug use?’ And I just wanted to know what happened,” Bianca Parker said. “I finally asked, ‘Is he dead?’ And they said, ‘Yes, he passed at six o’clock.’ ”Bianca said the medical report showed Dante’s temperature was 106 degrees and he was hyperthermic. She also said detectives told her Dante was hit with a stun gun “well over five times.”She said she requested to see the body. “I thought maybe they had the wrong Dante,” Bianca said.She said the detectives told her his body had already been transported to the Riverside County Coroner’s Office for an autopsy. She said the Sheriff’s Department’s paperwork from Tuesday night listed Dante as a federal prisoner who was being transported and deputies were told not to contact family. “He was shipped to Riverside like a John Doe without even contacting any family,” Bianca Parker said.She also said the detectives told her Dante was “not aggressive and not combative, but was disoriented and non-compliant when deputies approached him.”“(The detective) said he was not aggressive,” Bianca said. “Well, if he was not aggressive, why did (they) Tase him? I know he was probably asking them, ‘Why are you arresting me for riding a bike?’ But really, what the hell are you going to steal on a bike?”A San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s news release on Wednesday said Parker was identified as a suspect in an attempted break-in in the 13000 block of Bucknell Court around 5 p.m. Tuesday. When the Daily Press reached out for comment on Thursday, the residents of the home declined to speak. However, Dominick David Allen did leave Facebook comments online on the Daily Press article about Parker’s death. “He was trying to get into my house,” Allen commented on Wednesday via Facebook. “My mother was the one who contacted the police as well as a woman driving by who witnessed him trying to get into my house. So yes. I was there. And I witnessed it all.”Allen went on to write that he stood at the door “making sure (Parker) didn't get in.”“I was protecting my family,” Allen said in another comment. “I didn't ... want to open the door. I tried asking him if he was OK and, ‘Does he need anything?’ But he ignored me and kept pulling at my screen door trying to get in.” “It didn't end how I would have wanted it,” Allen said in a third comment. “We handled the situation as best we could. I would have handled the situation the same a hundred times over.”Bianca Parker said her husband was riding his son’s “small, Mongoose bike, because his had a flat.”“They saw him on my son’s bike, which is a small bike, and they saw him on a kid’s bike and thought he stole it,” Bianca said.Parker’s death is the second law enforcement-related death in the past year among his extended family. According to a Press-Telegram article from January, a coroner’s report said Donte Jordan, 39, was shot multiple times by police and had two fatal shots to the back. The article said Jordan reportedly brandished a handgun and shot at innocent bystanders. “We were just talking about (Donte Jordan’s death),” Parker’s father Darrell Parker said Thursday. “It hasn't even been a year since he was shot in the back Nov. 10 on Chestnut and Anaheim. Thirty-nine years old.”The Press-Telegram article said the coroner’s report noted Jordan had “ ‘high levels’ of PCP, cocaine and marijuana in his system.”The Orange County Register reported Jordan’s family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Long Beach Police Department in April. Anneli Fogt can be reached at AFogt@VVDailyPress.com or 760-951-6276. Follow her on Twitter @DP_anneli_fogt.